Although Yamaha Motor Co. posted over a 23 million dollar net gain in 2008, the company is already projecting over a 460 million dollar net loss for 2009. The publicly traded company's first net loss since since the last major recession in 1984, the reason for the new projection is due to the rising yen's effect on Yamaha's export market coupled with the current global financiapocalypse.

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As if that wasn't bad enough, Yamaha is projecting a 22% drop in global sales. While we'd like to think this is largely because nobody's buying new Yamaha engines for their fishing boats, the motorcycle division is still projected to take a loss. The result of which is a consideration to postpone a new test track and parts plant in Japan as well as freezing production expansion for a plant in Indonesia. The company is also slashing executive salaries by as much as 20% for the remainder of the year.

The good news is that Yamaha dealers near the US borders in both Canada and Mexico are expected to report record sales from their parts departments for children's motorcycles and atvs for 2009.